I apologize if I offended you in some way. I'm not being paid anything for this, and my friend wants the scripts to make some testing that he has to do easier on him. To the best of my knowledge, this isn't something he's being paid a bonus to do. Sorry I didn't "offer cash" for something that I'm not being paid for myself - I just get by from one paycheck to the next, so I don't have a lot of money to throw around. :-) I was simply trying to help someone, but as I've mentioned, I don't know enough about perl to even know where to start on something like this (kind of hard to come up with starting code to offer up here for review/suggestions under those conditions).

I *am* interested in learning more about perl; I was hoping that the Hacker's Ethic was still alive in this day and age (which is why *I* am trying to help someone). That's why I came here. It seemed from what I was told by another that this would be a good place to start and to ask for help. In the past, when I've been asked for help of this type of nature, if I knew how to write the script or program, I just did so and provided it, with explanations as to how what was doing what. I personally learn best from working examples (reading a man page for something that I'm unfamiliar with isn't all that helpful to me - they're useful when I already understand the subject), so I tend to use that technique when I'm helping someone to learn about something. I was hoping that someone here would have the same sort of mentality. Perhaps I was mistaken in that hope.

You say that Google searches code ok now - that's good news at least. I'll see if I can figure out what the best terms are to find something useful. :-)

Most of us see PerlMonks as a place to exchange information and pass on experience to bring others up to speed with Perl. Although a huge amount of code is written in answer to questions, there is a strong emphasis on helping solve problems through enlightenment rather than simply providing a canned solution.

If you are a programmer then the appropriate first question is not "Do this for me", but "How might I go about this?" or "What tools would help with this?" or (even better) "I tried this, but I got stuck on that. What have I done wrong?". And the first step preceeds the first question to the monks - search for answers yourself. You've been given a few places to look already (see, we are friendly and helpful).

Thanks to you and Rabbi Bob for posting the links to some examples. You have no idea how much that will help me in figuring this thing out! :-) And, heck, you even gave me an example of the Super Search in action, so now I'm not cringing so much at the thought of using a web site's "search" function (see my above re: cringing at website search functions). *grin*

Also, thanks to the both of you and Planetscape for the more encouraging words of help. To be honest, I was a bit put off by the response from "Your Mother," and wasn't sure if this was the kind of place I was going to want to be hanging out to learn the language better. The whole "give us money" attitude left me a bit taken aback. I'm glad to see the other responses. :-)

Well, then, time for me to start digging in earnest. Let the adventure begin! 8^)

Don't forget that there are working scripts available here that are valuable in learning something new with working code as the example. Checking out the Networking Code from the Code section shows a few scripts on pinging such as this one that should get you started on what you are trying to do.

"The trouble with having an open mind, of course,is that people will insist on coming alongand trying to put things in it." - Terry Pratchett